The following relates to the environmental arts, and to the imaging, diagnostic, characterization, and related arts. It finds particular application in diagnostic imaging of medical test subjects in biological isolation environments, and is described with particular reference thereto. However, the following finds more general application in imaging of subjects of substantially any type in substantially any isolation environment, and finds still more general application in enabling access to subjects in substantially any isolation environment for substantially any imaging, diagnostic, characterization, or other purpose without breaking the isolation and without exposing the imaging, diagnostic, characterization, or other equipment to the isolation environment.
Concerns about bioterrorism, spread of contagions by travel, and so forth have motivated development and expansion of biological isolation laboratories for research, diagnosis and monitoring of contagion outbreaks, and so forth. Dangerous infectious diseases are advantageously studied in laboratories operating at Biological Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) or in accordance with other biological safety protocols such as those specified in the BioSafety in Molecular and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) standard issued by the Office of Health and Safety of the Centers for Disease Control (BMBL 4th edition available at http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/biosfty/bmb14/bmb14toc.htm). As noted in the introduction of the BMBL, “Microbiological laboratories are special, often unique work environments that may pose identifiable infectious disease risks to persons in or near them. Infections have been contracted in the laboratory throughout the history of microbiology.” These laboratories are specially designed and constructed for containment. A typical BSL-4 laboratory is made gas-tight and coated with a thick epoxy seal on walls, floors, and ceilings, and is typically housed in a double-walled concrete structure with limited access. Mechanical systems are specially designed with redundancies and to maintain a bioseal. BSL-4 containment is achieved at least in part using a dynamic system of pressure differentials, maintained by surrounding the laboratory horizontally and vertically with a series of increasing pressure zones. Airlocks are used at primary access points. Materials used in a BSL-4 laboratory are selected to withstand exposure to decontamination chemicals such as Microchem and TB Quat, and are further selected to withstand exposure to decontamination gases such as para-formaldehyde, vaporized hydrogen peroxide at relatively high (e.g. 35%) concentration, ammonium carbonate, and so forth.
Medical imaging systems such as magnetic resonance (MR) scanners, gamma cameras, positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, and so forth are advantageously used to examine test subjects in the course of studying infectious diseases. For example, medical imaging can reveal tumors or other malignancies, can monitor tumor growth rates, and so forth. However, medical imaging systems are expensive, complex systems that are not readily compatible with the BSL-4 environment. For example, a typical medical imaging instrument includes components that are likely to be damaged by chemicals or gases used in decontamination. Medical imaging instruments also typically include materials and structures that have a high likelihood of trapping and retaining infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, prions, or so forth. Servicing of medical imaging equipment disposed in a BSL-4 environment is also problematic—servicing technicians qualified to perform the maintenance may not be qualified to operate in the BSL-4 environment, and transferring parts into and out of the BSL-4 environment is difficult. Additionally, the isolation suits worn by personnel in the BSL-4 environment reduce manual dexterity and inhibit mobility which further increases the difficulty in maintaining medical imaging equipment in a BSL-4 environment.